THE EMOTION PARADOX IN THE AGING BODY AND BRAIN

Abstract With age, parasympathetic activity decreases while sympathetic activity increases. Thus, the typical older adult has low heart rate variability (HRV) and high noradrenergic activity. Younger adults with this physiological profile tend to be chronically unhappy and stressed. Yet, with age, emotional experience tends to improve. Why doesn’t older adults’ emotional well-being suffer as their HRV decreases? To address this apparent paradox, I present the autonomic compensation model. In this model, failing organs and initial phases of Alzheimer’s pathology trigger noradrenergic hyperactivity in older adults. Older brains attempt to compensate by increasing autonomic regulatory processes in ventromedial prefrontal (vmPFC) cortex. Age-related declines in nerve conduction reduce the ability of these compensatory attempts to reduce hyperactive noradrenergic activity and increase peripheral HRV. However, despite their muted effects on peripheral autonomic activity, these autonomic compensation attempts bias brain processing in favor of stimuli that tend to increase parasympathetic activity and against stimuli that tend to increase sympathetic activity. The autonomic compensation model can account for the “age-related positivity effect” in which, compared with younger adults, older adults show attentional and memory biases favoring positive over negative stimuli. Consistent with the autonomic compensation model, the age-related positivity effect is associated with vmPFC activity and functional connectivity and is evident even in early attention processes resistant to goal-directed processing. The autonomic compensation model posits that the aging brain responds to sympathetic hyperactivity in ways that amplify on-going automatic emotion regulation processes and so help maintain emotional well-being.

Elizabeth Head 2 , and Mara Mather 1 , 1. University of Southern California,Los Angeles,California,United States,2. University of California,Irvine,Irvine,California,United States,3. University of California Los Angeles,Los Angeles,California,United States Alzheimer's disease-related protein amyloid beta (Aβ) plasma levels increase with age, and Aβ40 levels are associated with greater mortality.Most plasma Aβ40 is produced via platelets.Platelet activity is regulated by endothelial cells, which are stimulated by blood flow.Slow paced breathing with a 10-second cycle maximizes heart rate oscillations, which may stimulate endothelial-platelet interactions that affect Aβ production.We investigated this idea by randomizing healthy adults (54 younger and 54 older adults) into two groups with the opposite goals: increasing (Osc+) or decreasing (Osc-) heart rate oscillations.Four weeks of daily practice (20-40 min) resulted in large changes in plasma Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels.We also found that changes in Aβ were not associated with changes in resting-state physiology including heart rate variability.But the Aβ changes were associated with a frequency measure of heart rate oscillations induced during practice, suggesting that the Aβ changes were more driven by blood flow changes during practice.P-selectin is an indicator of endothelial activity.We found a significant intervention effect where the Osc+ intervention increased p-selectin and the Osc-intervention decreased p-selectin in older adults.Changes in p-selectin also showed strong negative correlations with changes in Aβ40 and Aβ42 in older adults.The results suggest that blood flow oscillations caused by high amplitude heart rate oscillations stimulated endothelial cells, which suppressed platelet activity and consequently reduced the production of Aβ in older adults.In follow-up research, we are investigating relationships between plasma Ab changes and changes in brain and cognition.

THE EMOTION PARADOX IN THE AGING BODY AND BRAIN Mara Mather, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States
With age, parasympathetic activity decreases while sympathetic activity increases.Thus, the typical older adult has low heart rate variability (HRV) and high noradrenergic activity.Younger adults with this physiological profile tend to be chronically unhappy and stressed.Yet, with age, emotional experience tends to improve.Why doesn't older adults' emotional well-being suffer as their HRV decreases?To address this apparent paradox, I present the autonomic compensation model.In this model, failing organs and initial phases of Alzheimer's pathology trigger noradrenergic hyperactivity in older adults.Older brains attempt to compensate by increasing autonomic regulatory processes in ventromedial prefrontal (vmPFC) cortex.Age-related declines in nerve conduction reduce the ability of these compensatory attempts to reduce hyperactive noradrenergic activity and increase peripheral HRV.However, despite their muted effects on peripheral autonomic activity, these autonomic compensation attempts bias brain processing in favor of stimuli that tend to increase parasympathetic activity and against stimuli that tend to increase sympathetic activity.
The autonomic compensation model can account for the "age-related positivity effect" in which, compared with younger adults, older adults show attentional and memory biases favoring positive over negative stimuli.Consistent with the autonomic compensation model, the age-related positivity effect is associated with vmPFC activity and functional connectivity and is evident even in early attention processes resistant to goal-directed processing.The autonomic compensation model posits that the aging brain responds to sympathetic hyperactivity in ways that amplify on-going automatic emotion regulation processes and so help maintain emotional well-being.

TOWARD A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN LATER LIFE
Chair: Marja Aartsen Discussant: Michal Myck Social exclusion (SE) -or the separation of individuals and groups from mainstream society -is a serious problem with adverse health and well-being outcomes and increased societal costs.Older adults form a vulnerable group as they tend to be excluded for longer periods than younger people.A growing body of knowledge suggests that SE is multidimensional, including social, cultural, economic, material, and geographical aspects.There are however noticeable knowledge gaps, of which some are addressed in this symposium.Three presentations are based on large cross-national data sets, the final is a qualitative study on a rarely investigated but relevant social group, i.e., older Roma people.The first presenter shows how childless older adults in Europe feel more excluded than older adults with children and discusses how normative pressures can exclude people from society (data from the European Social Survey, wave 1 and 10).The second presenter explains how depopulation of geographical areas can act as driver of SE through material hardship, low social integration and lacking public infrastructure in the depopulated areas (data derived from SHARE, wave 4 and 6).Based on unique data from Poland and Germany, the third presenter shows how associations between markers of SE and well-being are modified by the macro-social context and characteristics of the individual.By using an intersectional life course perspective, the last presentation indicates how pathways in-and out SE are linked to social and societal processes and the political history of a country in a socially deprived group.

COHORT DIFFERENCES IN THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN CHILDLESSNESS AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN OLD AGE
Julia Sauter 1 , and Marja Aartsen 2 , 1. OsloMet,Oslo,Oslo,Norway,2. OsloMet Oslo Metropolitan University,Oslo,Akershus,Norway With the progressive institutionalization of Western societies during the first half of the 20th century, socially standardized life trajectories were established, in which certain transitions were expected to be made by a majority of society.These normative transitions, experienced by most individuals at different ages of life, have a temporality implying potential social sanctions for those who carry them out too early, too late or not at all.In earlier born cohorts compared to later born cohorts, the transition to parenthood was an event that was highly valued both socially and institutionally, but a part of society remained childless.This study investigates whether childless people born between 1920 and 1935 were more socially excluded when aged between 60 and 80 than people from the same cohort who transitioned to parenthood.We further examined whether a later life difference in social exclusion between childless people and people with children became smaller in later born cohorts (1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954)(1955).Gender stratified analyses (N=6441, 54% women) on data from the European Social Survey suggest that, in later life, childless women in the earlier born cohort had less trust in other people and felt less socially included than women who had at least one child.Childless men in the earlier born cohort feel less socially included in later life than childless men in the later-born cohort.This difference persisted for women over the years but became slightly smaller for men suggesting a diminishing importance of children for social inclusion in later life for men, not women.

INEQUALITIES IN OLD AGE WELL-BEING: THE ROLE OF REGIONAL DEPOPULATION AND SOCIAL AND MATERIAL CONDITIONS
Martina Brandt 1 , and Alina Schmitz 2 , 1. TU Dortmund University,Dortmund,Germany,Dortmund,Germany Material conditions and social integration are important predictors of wellbeing in old age.It can be expected that older individuals who reside in depopulating areas experience declines in well-being, as their property loses value, their social networks are shrinking, and public infrastructure is lacking.We conduct comparative analyses of Germany and Poland, two countries that show significant differences with regard to the economic and social situation of the older population.We expect that regional depopulation is more detrimental to well-being in Poland, as older individuals rely more strongly on informal support and individual resources in old age.We apply multilevel regression models to investigate the interrelations between overall life satisfaction, social integration, material conditions and regional factors.We combine micro-data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) with macro-data on regional characteristics (depopulation, public infrastructure and economic development).Our preliminary analyses suggest that a substantial part of inequalities in old age well-being can be traced back to regional differences in the level of depopulation.Social integration and material conditions are important mediators of this association.Additionally, regional differences in care and health infrastructure are important predictors of well-being -especially for older adults in need of financial and social support.Regional depopulation can be detrimental to well-being in later life due to material hardship, low social integration and lacking public infrastructure.In the next steps, we will investigate whether there are differences at the country level by comparing Germany and Poland.